Family in dark over child’s death linked to hospital infection

A FAMILY has not been told that the death of their child was linked to an infection at Glasgow’s superhospital.

The First Minister admitted the failure was ‘deeply regrettable’ when questioned by Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar at Holyrood yesterday.

An investigation into children infected by hospital water at the Royal Hospital for Children in Glasgow has managed to contact all but one of the 84 families affected.

The family which has not been contacted is that of a child who died in 2017.

The disclosure that the family might not know their child’s cause of death is part of the ‘biggest scandal of the devolution era’, Mr Sarwar said.

Sick children were found to have infections linked to the water supply, including two whose deaths are believed to be related to the problem, following warnings from whistleblowers at the hospital.

One of them was ten-year-old Milly Main, who was in remission from leukaemia but died in 2017 after contracting an infection. Her family learned of the probable cause of death in a newspaper.

Despite attempts by NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde (NHSGGC) to contact affected families since the scandal came to light in 2019, Mr Sarwar warned that the relatives of the other child who died have ‘almost certainly’ not been found.

Miss Sturgeon said it is ‘deeply regrettable’ the family have not been contacted, despite ‘serious attempts’ to locate them.

She said an independent review had looked at 118 cases of serious bacterial infection in 84 children linked to the hospital, and all but one family had been contacted.

At First Minister’s Questions, Glasgow MSP Mr Sarwar said: ‘Two children died in Scotland’s flagship hospital due to a waterborne infection.

‘One family had to find out by fighting the health board, and the other family may not even know. This is the biggest scandal of the devolution era.’

Mr Sarwar, who raised the whistleblowers’ concerns at Holyrood in 2019, argued the health board’s failure to tell the family when concerns were first raised was unlawful. He continued: ‘It’s one thing breaking the law when it comes to treatment waiting times, it’s another thing breaking the law when it comes to telling a family the truth about how their child died. This scandal involved denials, bullying of clinicians, coverups and parents of sick children being blamed for their illnesses.

‘Clinicians have been raising the alarm for years.

‘The result of inaction is tens of children getting infections and, tragically, two children dying. But there are still families fighting for truth and justice. This case proves the response from the First Minister has not been good enough.’

In response, Miss Sturgeon said: ‘I’m not disputing that this is an incredibly serious matter.

‘What I am disputing is that the Government is not taking this seriously and that the Government

is not determined – through the full independent public inquiry – to get to the bottom of everything that happened, from the opening of the hospital right through to now to make sure that families have the answers to the questions they need.’

A Scottish Government spokesman said: ‘Regrettably, despite extensive efforts by the [Independent Case Note Review] team and NHSGGC to contact this family using all available patient data, the team has been unable to trace them.

‘We launched the Scottish Hospitals Inquiry to address the concerns of patients and families.’’

‘Biggest scandal of devolution era’